Equivalent
by Direwolfpup
Summary: She had only been there for five days. He had been there for five weeks. She lived in an all girls maze hoping to make a difference. He lived in an all boys glade hopping to see tomorrow. Both weren't meant to meet but a sudden flaw intertwines both their destiny's. Follow the story of Madline and Leo as they battle for survival.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I am writing this story with my best friend who is an awesome angel! this story will be skipping in and out of Madline and Leo's POV. My best friend is writing Madline's POV and I am writing Leo's POV. We would love reviews and accept any story ideas! Please follow and favourite! hope you enjoy!**

 **Madline POV**

Fear. It's a four letter word but such a powerful one... I feel it every night. I live in the glade which is kinda like a safe haven in the middle of a bizarre, dangerous and mysterious maze. I live here with about 30 or 40 other girls, no boys. We were all put there by the creators, no one knows who these people are or why they put us here. We all came from the box which is in the glade. And the one thing that all of us girls want, is to find a way out. Every day we send the runners out of the glade (when the doors open) to the maze. I have always wanted to go out there to join then, Sonya doesn't want me to because she says I'm still new in the glade. All I remember, is my name. It's the same for all the girls... Well that's how it was until I started having these visions... My name is Madline and my life is just getting started...

I woke up early, just like every morning, well earlier than the other gladers, well except perhaps for the runners who have to leave early to map the maze before the doors shut. They are also the only girls who are allowed out there. I have always wanted to be a runner. I don't know why but I feel like I'm meant to.

I stood up and stretched, letting out an enormous yawn. I drowsily walked over to my favourite spot in the glade, a lush, grassy spot next to a flagpole from which hung a flag painted red. I sat down in time to see the last runner run into the maze when a young girl with soft, wavy, platinum blonde hair and sparkling, bright blue eyes which dazzled with spirit and life, approached me. Marie. My best friend. She sat down next to me without a word, studying me intently as I studied and wondered about the maze. Marie was the first to break the peaceful silence.

"When are you going to stop wondering about the maze?"

I slowly forced my gaze away from the maze and stared into her intelligent eyes that seemed to read my soul.

"I will stop talking about it when I finally go out there," I reply angrily, pulling out a tuft of grass by its roots and throwing it.

She just gives me a small smile in return.

"Come on," she says after a while, standing up and brushing off grass and dirt, "I know what will take your mind off that maze, archery practice."

"You know me two well Mar!" I exclaim with a smile that didn't fully reach my eyes (hardly anyone could possible fully smile in a place as terrible as the glade). She is right though, we both know each other so well. Marie is the closest thing I got to family (since I can't remember who they are)

We go to where the weapons are, Marie walking with light graceful strides. She was as beautiful and as delicate as a butterfly. It hurt me so much knowing that someone put her here in this awful, miserable place. Marie and I stop in front of a girl guarding the weapons store. Her name is Athena. She is a fairly nuggety girl with flawless, pale skin and ginger hair that was pulled back in a tight ponytail. She beams brightly when Mar and I come to a halt in front of her. "Hi Maddy, hi Mar!" She practically shouts.

Athena did not have a whispering voice nor an inside voice. Just a loud voice that could be heard from miles away.

"Let me guess a bow and quiver full of arrows for u Maddy!"

"Not just any bow," I say with a devilish grin, "Hope."

Mar giggle's her angelic giggle as Athena shakes her head.

"I still don't get why you named a bow? I especially don't get why you named it Hope?"

My devilish grin turns into a sad sigh. Marie knows why. It's to remind me that I will survive and escape this treacherous maze...

 **A/N: next chapter is in Leo's POV! hope you enjoyed this chapter so much that you will leave a review and follow and favourite.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Leo POV**

I was forcibly shaken awake from my beautiful sleep.

"Five weeks and you think you could wake up yourself. But no I still have to come wake you up like your shuck mummy." Complained Minho as I rolled of the hammock, face planting the floor.

I groaned loudly, refusing to budge while Minho tried desperately to pull me to my feet. I am saddened to say that he succeeded.

I trudge through the glade to the east door. Five weeks ago I woke up terrified, confused and all alone in an icy cold box. I remembered nothing except my name. Leo. The box was a strange elevator type thing that sent supplies and new kids, like me, to a place called the glade. The glade is a type of encampment in the middle of a danger filled maze to which we strive to escape. There are no girls in the glade. I spent my first few days sobbing my eyes out. Then I was chosen to be a runner, a person sent out to the maze to map it in order to find an exit. Now I spend my days hoping to live long enough to see the next.

I dash through the endless corridors of the maze. Hoping to find something different... But it's all the same large, cracked, ivy covered, stone walls. Occasionally the silvery glint of a scurrying beetle blade breaks up my bland surroundings. Usually I would run with someone, usually it was Linc, my friend, but just two days ago he was stung by a griever. Grievers were strange monstrous mechanical spider-slug like creatures that roamed the maze. They apparently only come out at night. Apparently. But Linc was stung in broad daylight! Luckily the griever didn't continue to pursue him after he was stung and we were able to give him the serum in time. The serum is a medicine that when injected into you prevents you from dying because of the griever sting but also gives you flashbacks of the past. This process is called the changing and it's very, very painful and afterwards people are never really the same. There's a kid in the glade named Gally, only knew him for a few days before he got stung, but during those few days he was a really good guy. After the changing though he wasn't the same person as before. He became cruel and just… changed. I really fear for Linc. He's was an awesome person. I don't want him to become like Gally. That's if he makes it. Not everyone who goes through the changing survives it… As I said, it's a very painful process.

You're only meant to remember things if you've been stung but these past five days I've been having these dreams... I think they're visions from my past. And man it's really creeping me out.

 **A/N: please review! Follow! And favourite! accept any plot ideas and constructive critism**


	3. Chapter 3

**Madline POV**

 _That night I while I slept. I saw myself in a strange place. It's weird because, it felt like I have been there in real life. I was sitting with a boy, who looked around one year older than me. He had tanned skin, green eyes and dark brown hair. He looks at me, the boy seems so familiar but I can't remember ever seeing him before. In the dream I was crying, he walks over to me and says;_

 _"Don't worry Maddy, everything will work out in the end. I promise," I look into his eyes._

 _The boy gives me a hug. I hug him back. We hug what seems like ages holding onto each other tight._

 _Two men in white lab uniform come in the room, they are emotionless when they say, "it's time", to the boy._

 _"No!" I scream._

 _The boy grabs my arm and takes me with him to where the men with the lab uniform are taking him._

 _The men tell me I have to leave now, the boy asked if he can say goodbye but Before the man could even reply the boy quickly turns to me and speaks;_

 _"Maddy, look, when I'm in the glade I won't remember you, but promise me you will try to remember me."_

 _Before I could even say reply. He kisses me on the cheek. I'm blushing._

 _The men grab him and say, "Hurry up kid we don't have all day!"_

 _The boy says his last words as they yank him away, "remember me Maddy! Remember the name Leo!"_

 _I'm now in a different place with a younger version of me, about five years old. I'm with another girl who is almost an exact spitting image of me except that her eyes are bright green while mine are hazel. Her nose is also thinner and sharper than mine, she is also older than my dream-self, about nine. I'm also with a bloodshot eyed woman in her thirties. The woman looks so drained and devoid of life. So worried._

 _The younger me says, "Mummy are you coming with us?"_

 _The girl Next to me has hope in her eyes, which soon vanish when the woman, who is apparently my mum, feebly shakes her head._

 _Silence._

 _"Don't worry where you're going is a safe place, mummy's friend Ava will look after you," says my mother with a croaky voice, as if she's holding back tears._

 _The young me looks scared and nervous._

 _The other girl notices and wraps her arms around me and says, "don't worry I will take care of you, I promise I won't let anything happen to you. You're my sister and I'll always protect you. Forever and ever and ever!"_

 _All of a sudden, someone knocks on the door, a young man who has a pointed face like that of a rat._

 _"I'm from Wicked here two pick up Rose and Madline."_

 _The woman says, "Where's Ava she told me she was coming to pick them up?"_

 _Ratman looked annoyed._

 _"Look, I got told to pick them up."_

 _The young girl said angrily," We don't want to go with you and you can't make us!"_

 _Ratman looked at her grabbed a gun out of his pocket and pointed it at my sister head._

 _"Now will you come with me?"_

 _My sister stands frozen, like a statue, my Mum pushes the rat-man away from my sister._

 _Rat-man looks annoyed and shouts, "I don't have time for this!" and with that he shoots my mum in the leg._

 _I yell Mummy. My mum cries in pain. She looks at Ratman with a sudden fierceness in her eyes. "_

 _I never liked you Janson, I knew you were trouble the moment I saw you, you killed my husband, he was the one who was two steps closer to finding the cure! Just wait until I tell Ava about this!" she snarls._

 _He gives my Mum an evil smile and says, "You're right better to get rid of you as well."_

 _ **Bang!**_

 _My mum lies motionless on the floor, blood pouring out of the bullet wound in her head._

 _I scream, I try to get to her but Janson grabs my sister and I with an iron like grip. Tears are pouring down face._

 _I awake with my screams, ringing in my ears_.


	4. Chapter 4

**Leo POV**

I collapsed, exhausted, into my hammock after a long, hard day of running. Afterward I had gone to the map room to make a map of the part of the maze I ran. There was no point though, there was already a map for the section of the maze I had run.

The snores of the gladers filled the glade with the occasional interruption of a griever's inhuman shriek. But despite the noise I found myself sinking deeper and deeper into sleep.

 _"Leo!" Came a feminine yell behind me I whirled around to see a girl, same age as me, running towards me._

 _I must be dreaming._

 _She had an hourglass figure with light brown hair held up in a messy bun and hazel eyes. She skidded to a halt in front of me and I could see that she matched me in height. She batted big long eyelashes before she pushed her lips to mine._

 _Yep. This was definitely a dream._

 _I wrapped my arms around the girl and pulled her closer._

 _There was a small cough behind me and the girl pulled her lips away from mine and stared angrily at the direction of the disruption. I whirled around to face another young girl. She was at least a year younger than me, a head shorter in height and was blushing furiously._

 _"Hello_ _ **Madline**_ _," viciously spat the girl who had been kissing me._

 _The other girl, Madline, looked taken back by the older girl's tone of voice and spat back just as viciously:_

 _"Kat."_

 _"What are you doing here?" Kat asked spitefully._

 _Whoa! This girl was a shuck face._

 _"Leo said he was going to help me with some stuff," Madline said simply._

 _"Really?" Kate sneered, "Well Leo is helping me right now and as I am his girlfriend I think I'm more of a priority than you."_

 _I looked at Madline apologetically but I wasn't going to argue with Kat._

 _"Fine," snapped Madline, brownish, green eyes as cold as stone before looking at me and her expression soften._

 _"See ya later," and with that she turned and left._

 _I felt heartbroken as I watched her disappear down the hall._

 _"Leo!" snapped Kat, and I turned facing her, realizing she had been trying to call my name a few times but I hadn't heard as I had been too busy watching Madline leave._

 _"You have to choose! Madline or me?!"_

 _But before I can reply the vision shifts._

 _I'm six or seven, it's hard to tell because I'm covered it puffy red blisters and grotesquely sun burnt not to mention unhealthily skinny and scrawny that I'm more skeleton then human. The sun is high in the cloudless sky, like an angry, red eye looking down on earth. And the heat is unbearable like I've been put in a hot furnace. Every breath is scalds my lungs and my mouth is as dry as the Sandy, scorched, barren, wasteland surrounding me and my throat burns with thirst. Every step is agony, my legs are aching from days of walking and I find myself wondering if I must go on. Why not collapse and finally let death take me. But a small voice in the back of my head whispers:_

 _"Keep going."_

 _And I keep walking._

 _There are others with me, most are adults. I'm the youngest along with another young boy who is still older than me as he seems to be fourteen. Everyone looks just as tired and as disgustingly sunburnt as each other._

 _Yet we keep walking._

 _I don't know where I'm going. I don't think anyone knows where we are going._

 _One person, a man collapses, and another tries to help him get up to no avail. The man lets out a heart wrenching wordless plea and looks around for help but everyone ignores the man and his fallen friend and keep walking. Leaving them behind._

 _I want to help, i try to turn back but a woman places her cracked, dried out hand on my back and shoves me forward._

 _I keep walking._

 _More people collapse. A woman lets out a strange chant like babble and starts tearing at random people. Sinking her sharp nails into their skin and even biting, still chanting her crazy words. The group erupts into chaos as the woman is attacked back and dies with a blood curdling shriek as the fourteen year old boy slits her throat._

 _I keep walking._

 _Suddenly I know I just can't go on any more. I'm weak with starvation, thirst and exhaustion. With one last forced step my knees buckle and I collapse hitting the ground with a thud. I close my eyes and wait for the agony to stop._

 _They keep walking._

 _I wait for what seems like an eternity. Every part of me aches and soon my breaths are shallow and rasping. All I can hear is the howling wind as it blows sand so harshly that it hurts when it hits my skin. But there was something else as well, a low hum, growing louder with each passing second. With the last of my strength I open my eyes to see a Berg with the words WICKED imprinted on its side, flying above. I raise my hand in the hopes that it will notice me before blacking out._

"Man, wake up!"

I sit bolt upright, panting heavily, covered in a cold sweat.


	5. Chapter 5

**Madline POV**

Have you ever woken up scared...like so scared you forget who you are? That's how I feel. I was sitting where I normally sit. Early in the morning, about one o'clock. I couldn't stop staring at the door... It was like I was waiting for something... I felt empty like all the happiness had been sucked out of me. The runners walk past, while getting themselves ready, occasionally muttering a word of greeting to me.

Finally I get up and walk around the glade. The boy's voice from my dreams still rings in my ears," Remember Maddy, remember Leo". For some strange reason it felt as if a small little voice was trying to make me forget that name, but I wasn't letting it.

Without thinking I find myself running around the glade. The runners take off, and slowly the glade comes to life as majority of its inhabitants wake up.

Usually I go get breakfast... But this morning isn't a usual morning... No, I fell to empty and worried and... Wrong. I don't feel like eating. Eating won't solve anything.

From the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of the weapons store I turn my body in that direction and make my way towards it. Maybe some archery practice will help. If not maybe Athena will, she's good at cheering people up.

"Morning Maddy a bit early for archery practice isn't?" Asked Athena.

"Hi Athena, I just had a bad dream. I need something to get my mind off it."

"Bad dream! Me too! Bunch of grievers wanted to bake me in a cake!" She shivered and I laughed. Though it wasn't a full happy laugh.

I shot a couple of arrows, then I walked back to where I was previously sitting that morning, absentmindedly taking my bow and arrow with me.

I sat down again, letting the cool air brush my face. I don't know how long I sat there, consumed by my emotions and thoughts but when I finally came to my senses it was almost time for the doors to close.

Marie sat down next to me. She hadn't been able to talk to me all day as she was working in the gardens- that was her job in the glade. She looked worried. Apparently, according to the other gladers, an expression only worn on her face since I came to the glade. She had apparently never really looked worried before. In fact even I could say that Mar was more of a neutral, go with the flow kind of girl. "What's wrong Mar, you look worried?" I stated, looking over at her concerned.

"The reason why I'm worried is because of you, are you ok?' Answered Mar.

I didn't know how to answer. I could just lie and say I'm okay but Mar knows me two well. "Look last night..." The doors to the maze begin to close with an ear splitting metallic grinding. I stand up, erect.

"What was it you were saying Maddy?" Asks Marie the tone of worry in voice undeniable and she grabs my hand with her soft warm one, tugging lightly to get me to sit back down.

I don't answer neither do I sit back down.

There. Just down the corridor of the maze was...Was...

A boy?

He had sea green eyes and chocolate brown hair as well as flawless tanned skin...

Just like the boy from my dream.

His eyes meet mine and my heart stops beating for a split second then he turns and runs.

I don't even think about what I'm doing and before I know it I'm running too, towards the maze door. I mean to go into the maze and follow the boy.

I hear shouts of "stop!" and "don't do it!" behind me but I don't listen, I keep running. I feel arms reach out trying to pull my back. But nothing stops me.

Marie!

I turn around violently to find my friend hot on my heels.

I look into her eyes and grab her shoulders,

"Mar I'm going into the maze… there's no time to explain but don't follow me... I-I'll be safe...Just be brave," those words are agonising to say but I say them and with no more time to lose, flee into the maze.

The doors close in on me with bone crushing force, squishing me.

I'm going to be squished to death chasing after a boy!

With a sudden burst of speed I fall flat on my face... Inside the maze while the doors close with an earthshaking boom behind me.

And then louder than the boom of the doors comes Mars heartbreaking Scream... Not to mention a spine chilling, "I hope the grievers tear you to pieces!"

I dash around the corner to the boy leaning against the wall trying to regain his breath. I take a step towards him but suddenly he jumps up and spins his head towards me. His eyes widen from terror and... Recognition.

Maybe he knows me!

I take another step forward and his eyes flicker to the dagger in my belt back and he speeds off. I follow. He runs and runs for what seems like forever. My lungs burn and my legs ache, begging for a break. Every now and then i lose sight of him as he dashes round a corner but every time I do some unknown energy inside me forces me to go faster. Finally he dashes round one last corner, as I turn around it I almost stop in astonishment. At the end of this corridor is an opening leading to a... glade... But instead of girls going about their tasks and jobs are... Boys?!

Suddenly the same thunderous boom that had sounded in my glade a moment before sounded now... The doors were closing!

With protesting muscles and sore feet I run forwards... Collapsing in the boy glade just before the doors squashed me. Another narrow escape. I quickly get back on feet and even though my body screams no, I'm off running again. Still chasing the same boy who is now shouting at the top of his lungs. Most of the boys start pointing or/and gawking at me. I was so busy focused on the boy from my dream that I wasn't focusing on my surroundings until thwack! I collide into a log one of the boys was holding. I fall backwards into darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

**Leo POV**

The day went wrong as soon as I jolted awake.

It took me a while to register where I was... Even who I was.

Minho looked at me with a "you've got to be shucking kidding me" expression. He was the one who had pulled me out of my nightmare.

"Five weeks," he said, "five weeks and you're still having nightmares and screaming like a shuck baby."

I slowly looked around and saw majority of the gladers snickering at me with mumbled words of "shuck-baby" and "which slinthead decided to make him a runner! He's even more pathetic than a slopper".

Great. Just great. Definitely needed to be looked down upon and picked on.

With a growl I pushed myself out of the hammock and shoved Minho out of the way, stomping off towards the kitchens to get breakfast.

Linc was still going through the changing and his screams still terrorised everyone, he didn't seem to be getting better or worse.

This also meant I had to run the maze alone again.

Yippee.

Nothing was different. Nothing. Same stone ivy covered walls. Same everything! Before I knew it I was drifting off into my own thoughts... But what was wrong with that. It was just another plain ordinary day. What could go wrong?

Turns out a lot.

I didn't hear it nor see it until I loped around the corner...

And there it was...

The biggest shucking griever I've ever seen.

It was facing the opposite direction to me but I didn't need to see its face to know how terrifying it was.

I slowly walked backwards hoping it wouldn't hear or smell me.

I failed.

It whirled around almost as soon as I took my first step back. I halted and stared at it wide eyed.

Grievers weren't meant to be out during the day.

It let out a spine chilling inhuman moan. Then curled up in a ball and rolled at impossible speed toward me. Fear and adrenaline consumed me and I bolted off, faster than the speed of light. That's when I realized something...

I didn't know where I was going. I was in a completely new part of the maze. Everything looked the same but the walls were in different places. Maybe this was the way out. Hope surged through me but as soon as it had come it was gone. I had run down a dead end.

Metallic clicking and whirring sounded behind me. Terror struck my heart as I turned around and faced my worst nightmare. I found it increasingly difficult to breathe as I backed against the icy stone wall.

I was going to die in an unknown part of the maze... Would they ever find my body? Would they even care?

The griever closed in.

I threw my pack to the ground and frantically opened it, pulling out a long sharp machete. I threw the pack at the griever in hopes of distraction.

It just ate it.

The whole entire pack and its contents it just snatched up in its mouth and ate, like it was a tiny morsel of food. It didn't even stop moving forward.

I slashed at the air furiously, trying to ward the griever back.

Multiple metal arms equipped with spikes and knives and needles on the end, snaked forward. I slashed at one and cut through it. The griever roared as its arm fell to the ground.

At the same time the griever both leapt forward and snatched the machete right outta my hand-almost biting my hand off and ate it while three arms snaked forward. One cutting across my cheek and the second across my side and the third down my calf. I yelled as blood ran out of wounds staining my clothes and covering my hands. The cuts stung as I did my best to apply pressure on three wounds with only two hands. The griever roared again and I knew I was going to die...

Unlike its other victims the griever meant to actually kill me not just sting me...

Then another roar answered the griever's one.

Shuck another griever.

The griever turned away from me and charged.

Strange, I didn't know grievers to attack one another.

That's when a girl jumped on the grievers back.

Raven black short cropped hair, petite face and figure, thin blood red lips that were pulled back in a snarl as she knocked an arrow into a bow she was holding and shot the arrow downward, into the grievers back. The griever shrieked and the girl somersaulted off its back landed sure footed on the concrete floor. The girl fired another arrow and it sunk deep into the grievers flesh. It howled again.

I couldn't believe it...

The griever was being killed...

By a girl?!

The griever turned around and barrelled towards her. She jumped over it with superhuman grace and skill. She turned around and shouted at it, incompressible words but her tone of voice made it easy to understand the message behind those words;

"Bring it shuckface!"

It was like she was dancing. She jumped and whirled about with unimaginable speed and balance, all the while still shooting at the griever and landing on it and shooting it some more. Somehow avoiding being flattened, impaled and stung. I watched perplexed. I had never seen anything like it before.

Then she jumped over the griever so that when she landed lithely, she was facing me.

She saw me and stopped, her eyes widening in disbelief.

And that's all the griever needed.

With a terrifying roar it impaled the girl with its stinger.

Not just sting her with it. Actually impaled her.

It retracted its stinger and the girl looked down at the gaping wound in her chest.

A sea of blood poured out and her mouth made an o shape before she fell limply to the ground.

"Noooo!" I screamed, staring at the girl's body in horror.

I slowly peel my eyes away from her and to the griever instead. Panic seizes me as the griever takes a step over the girl's body before... having a seizure? A series of unnatural-even for a griever-metallic grinding and crunching noises erupt from it. Bits and pieces of griever fall and fly everywhere before it gives a final violent shudder and collapses on top of the dead girl.

I stare at the corpses if both griever and girl for what seem like ages. My brain tries to comprehend what just happened and my breathing and heart rate steady.

There's only one conclusion to what happened to the griever;

She killed it.

The shuck girl killed the shuck griever.

But before it died the shuck griever killed the shuck girl.

Questions bubbled to the surface but I had answers to none.

I looked up to see the sky start to darken.

Shuck.

The doors are going to close soon and I have no idea where the shuck I am in the maze.

Did I also forget to mention I'm bleeding the ocean thanks to the cuts from the griever?

Still in shock I get to my feet. My knees are weak and tremble violently so that I need to use the wall to support myself. I collapse twice before I finally stand on shaky legs. Pressing my hand to my side where I'm bleeding the most, I take off running.

Dizzy. So dizzy.

The world spins around me and blood and sweat pools on the ground behind me.

I keep running.

Until I forget why I'm running.

I can't think straight. I run down another unknown corridor before leaning against the wall and sliding down it.

I close my eyes and forget about the world.

I thought that was the end. But it wasn't.

I open my eyes again what seem to be a million years later.

The sun is still the same place in the sky as it was during the griever attack. That's not the only thing strange. By wounds are healed. No bandages. No blood. No scars. Nothing.

I stand to find that my body feels well rested and refreshed.

Odd.

None of that I'd the reason why I opened my eyes though. The lull of voices calling to each other, laughing shouting, and talking, and the sound of heavy objects being stacked and dropped or being hammered as well as the sound of barnyard animals chattering away in moo's and maa's and squeals. It sounds like the glade.

I slowly turn my head to find it is indeed the glade.

But not my glade.

It's a girl's glade.

I stare, astounded. Where in my glade boys would be going about daily task there were girls. Girls from thirteen to eighteen of many nationalities and skin colours and eye colours and hair colours and ummm... With hips and...You get my point. Oh and weapons. Did I forget to mention that my weapon was eaten by a griever and the last girl I met killed one?

Lucky none of the girls had noticed me and I began backing away. So of course as I take my first step back I shucking make eye contact with one. And of course it'd be way too simple for it just to be any girl I make eye contact with right? So as my life goes it was the girl from my dream that I make eye contact with.

Madline.

I stare at her afraid and confused while recognition lights up in her eyes like a shucking beacon.

I turn and bolt only to have a wave of dizziness and nausea wash over me. As I round the corner I press both my hands against the wall and heave but not throwing up anything.

I jump as a tremendous boom echoes through the maze. The girl glade door is closing.

I have to get to my glade but I feel too sick to move. I wait for the feeling to lessen and clear up when suddenly the sound of someone walking jolts me up.

I spin around-almost doubling over and heaving again from the sudden movement-to face the girl, Madline.


	7. Chapter 7

**Leo POV**

I froze and stared bug eyed at her. My Heart beat so fast it probably broke my ribs. She stepped closer, that's when something glinted in her hand from the last rays of the disappearing sun.

A dagger. I didn't have a weapon to defend myself with and it would be useless to try if she was as good as the other girl.

Without even thinking about making peace I bolted.

I had to get back to my glade!

Right. Left. Left. Right.

I turned randomly down each upcoming passage, unsure of which direction I was going and forever fearing that I would once again run down a dead end.

But still somehow hoping I would make it back.

I could hear her breath, sometimes close, sometimes far and sometimes not at all. I could hear her feet hit the ground in a consistent thud, thud. Not once did I hear her footfalls lose pace or fall out of rhythm.

I urged myself to move faster and faster until the ivy covered walls were an indistinguishable blur. Now the only sound I heard were my feet thudding on floor, my heartbeat throbbing in my ears and my heavy breathing.

Keep going!

Down more corridors. Legs screamed, head throbbed, lungs burned and muscles ached but I kept moving.

I was faster than the girl. That was clear. I thought I would of lost her but somehow she stayed on my tail.

Then, at last, I turned down another corridor and I saw it.

My glade.

With new found energy and rekindled hope I dashed forward. With an earth shattering boom the doors shuddered and began to close, but it didn't matter to me. I was already through, and somehow I knew the girl had made it through as well.

"GIRL!" I yell.

No one seems to have even noticed my arrival.

"It's a girl! There's a girl! HELP!" I holler over and over again.

Many eyes turn my way and many mouths gape. The guys are completely dumbstruck and do nothing to help me or restrain the girl. SMACK!

I turn around violently to see the girl sprawled on the ground, a big red lump already forming on her forehead, an oblivious boy holding a rather thick log stood over her. Instinctively I tensed up then rushed towards her, shooing the boy, Gally, off. I scooped the poor girl in my arms and ran off towards the homestead, to the medjacks.

Strange how I before I wouldn't have cared if she got squished between the walls and now I was carrying her in my arms, off to save her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Madline POV**

I'm sitting on a plastic chair at a speckled top table in a blue washed room with a bunch of kids, of a variety of ages, reading a book to myself. I look about one year younger then my present self. My eyes are bloodshot from trying not to cry. I'm not sure how to explain what happens next really. it's like a vision/memory just plays inside this vision/memory. I'm watching Marie get her memory. I'm screaming and crying and shouting at random people who just try to hush me. But I don't want to be hushed…

I want my best friend back. I know I've seen this happen to many other people, but...

This is different. I don't know how... it just is. Maybe it's because before I just kinda accepted it…

But this time something inside of me snaps…

And this time I only allow a single tear to fall onto the book I'm reading. The rest I bury deep inside of me.

The vision blurred and suddenly changed. I was crying in a room with one single, dim light. I was writing...Random words like; Fear, lonely, sadness. Until I wrote one big word that said HOPE. A girl who looked one year older than me walked in. Disgust and hatred were plainly written all over her face.

"Janson would like to run a few more test on you," the girl said.

She had an evil smirk on her face, like she was pleased that I was going through this torture. I stood up to go find Janson but I stopped and slowly turned around instead.

"Kat, why do you hate me so much?" I asked, pained.

She pulled her eyes away from reading my paper and looked at me as if she couldn't believe I had dared to speak with her.

After scrutinising me from a moment she sneered," You think you're so special, when in reality you're not. Your dim witted sister has more brains than you! That's why you're just a lab rat! That's why..." She looks like she is about to say more but holds it and decides to rip up my paper instead.

"By the way," she adds just as I'm about to step out the room, "Stay away from Leo. Remember little Maddy I know your worst fears."

I look two years younger than my present self. I'm running… I'm in the maze… I look exhausted and near fainting. Why am I running? Suddenly a creature slams into the wall behind me with a tremendous roar. My eyes go wide and if possible I dash through corridors even faster. But the mechanical slug like creature easily catches up. It stabs it's stinger into my right arm. Pain rushes through my body like a wave. my eyesight goes blurry and I stumble to the ground taking in deep breaths. The last thing I see is the creature slumping down to the ground, deactivated, and a mighty Berg lands carefully near me, amazingly not blowing me away. A blur of people come towards me, taking me inside the berg along which WICKED is written. Janson approaches me as the other people lay me on a white stretcher and rush off. He gives me a devilish grin and as the world goes black I hear him say in his evil voice, "the serum has been perfected, thank you Maddy. Now phase 1 can finally begin."

I'm standing beside my sister, while she takes notes and stares at a screen full of teenagers.

"Why are we helping them Rosie?" I ask my sister.

She shoots me a sympathetic look and responds quickly with, "Maddy you know why, to find a cure."

Judging by my deepening frown that wasn't a good enough answer.

"But do we really need to put them through hell?" My voice rises, "Do you think it's right for people to be put through torture? How could you just sit there and watch people like you and me die!? I don't care what you say Rose I don't trust WICKED! It's all good for you to say we can trust them, you're just sitting back living the life of luxury just watching a computer screen! Don't you see your turning into one of them! WICKED is turning you wicked!"

I turn to walk out, leaving Rose quiet and shocked.

I step out the door and yell," I bet when I go to the maze, you will just sit there and watch me suffer!" I slam the door violently behind me.

I awake to whispering voices. At first I relax, thinking I'm just asleep in the girls glade. Then realization washes over me like a dark cold wave. The voices in the girls glade are lithe and musical, these ones are deep and…masculine?

Wait a sec…

"She's awake," saysa voice so close and loud and I can feel and smell their horrid breath.

As quick as lighting I sit bolt upright, only one thought spinning through my head: THEY'RE GOING TO HURT YOU! GET AWAY! GET AWAY!

Without a second thought my eyes snap open, my fist moves with superhuman speed and the next thing I know I've punched the creepy guy with the bad breath. I hear the satisfying crack of his nose as he gives a shout and falls of the bed, blood spraying everywhere. There are at least four other boys in the room and they all stare at the boy whose Nose I just broke. I take the chance and bolt out the room, swinging open the door and colliding into a wall. My co-ordination and balance out of whack after being in a bed for who knows how long. The last thing I remember is seeing a big fat log and then a sudden pain in my head. I quickly gather myself but no sooner than I do I tumble down a flight of creaky run down stairs and stumble out the door. Sudden sunlight blinds my eyes and I have to stop and blink before I trip and tumble over and into who knows what again. When my eyes adjust I take a step forward planning on running again when I hear not only more male voices but barnyard animals and the sound of hacking and hammering. I look up to see boys going about and working. The ones who could hear the chaos I had left behind in the dark wooden building stood there gawking me. From behind someone roughly grabbed me by the arm with an iron vice grip. A high pitch scream escapes my mouth. I turn around to swing a punch but instead whoever was holding me captive caught my other hand and put it behind my back. I closed my eyes and screamed again and struggled, kicking out randomly.

"Alby!" Yelled a voice I recognised.

"Alby let her go!"

I slowly opened my eyes and stopped struggling.

"She hit Minho and tried to hit me. She's from the maze she's dangerous." Gruffly declares a voice behind me, Alby.

"Man she's only scared. Look she's calm now, just let me speak to her." Leo soothed.

Alby made an unsatisfied grunt but let me go.

"Hey. Maddy, That's your name right?"

I nod.

"You know me too don't you?" He asks.

I nod again.

"What the shuck is going on here?" Exclaims a bewildered Alby.


	9. Chapter 9

**Leo POV**

I had already suspected it but having the fact the she was the Madline from my dreams confirmed and that she too knew me, shook me right down to the core. I stared at her completely and utterly dumbstruck. She looked back at me with eyes, which looked like a collision of the elements, which were soft and innocent, full of wonder almost. If she felt the terror and shock I felt then she definitely didn't show it. I was another story altogether. My mouth was agape and my eyes were wide and a strange gurgling sound emitted from my throat. That broke the moment of wonder. She moved her head away quickly and took a large step back, her features contorting into one of slight disgust. I immediately shut my mouth. I straightened up and pivoted towards Alby, who stood like an imposing statue, arms crossed, eyebrows narrowed, waiting for the answer to his question. I reached out to pat Madline's shoulder but thought better of it and put it back down by my side. I opened my mouth to answer and after a few seconds closed it again and blinked blankly. I found I could not answer the leader of the glade's question as I too had no idea what the shuck was going on.

"I'm Madline," said the girl unexpectedly stepping forward and extending her hand towards Alby.

Alby stared down at her outstretched hand with disapproval but after a few seconds of studying it, placed his hand in hers and gave a firm shake.

I let out a sigh of relief that I wasn't aware I was holding.

"I'M GOING TO SHUCKING KILL THE SHANK!" Came an outraged roar from the homestead.

I jumped 10 feet high at the unexpected outburst and Madeleine cowered down, knowing that 'shank' was referring to her.

"Klunk," I whispered and dashed inside.

I ran up the rickety flight of stairs and burst through the door to find Minho sitting hunched over on the bed Madline was, until recently, in. He held numerous tissues against his nose to stop the bleeding but it also looked as if he was using them to hide his face.

"The shuck girl broke my beautiful nose," he told me despairingly and tenderly patting the pile of tissues that covered 'beautiful' nose.

"I think she fixed it actually. You look much better with your shuck face hidden by tissues." Replied Newt smugly from the corner.

"Shut up." Spat Minho.

"Don't shut up me. I bloody warned ya not to stick your ugly face so bloody close to the girl. I woulda punched ya as well had of woken up with that ghastly that thing inches from me."

Minho opened his mouth to reply but I left the room before I could hear the rest of the argument.

"I don't think he's going to kill you." I reported to Madeline after returning back outside.

"He'll be too worried that fighting you will ruin his appearance again." I added dryly.

She gave a light hearted smile and I couldn't help but smile in return. Her small act of happiness seemed to light up the world. Very rarely did people smile in this awful, forsaken place. Hers was also by far the most beautiful I'd ever seen; and I was certain it was the most beautiful I would ever see.


	10. Chapter 10

**Madline POV**

I've been here approximately two seconds and I can already determine that the difference between the boys and girls is quite tremendous. Perhaps it's because, even though I've had dream-memories about with boys in them, I've never actually physically met or seen a boy until now. Then again, they're not much different to girls… I mean they're human, just like me. On the other hand though, was chaos. Absolute chaos that I've never experienced in the entirety of my life. Alby, who was apparently the leader, had gathered every boy, gladers they called themselves, in front of a flag pole, smack bang in the middle of the glade. Everyone started at me either suspiciously, unbelievably, entranced or shot nervous glances. They shouted and yelled and argued over the top of one another in a garbled cacophony of voices. Some demanding answers to sensible questions such as 'who is she?', "where did she come from?' and 'is she dangerous?'. Others screaming rude indecencies such as 'She's mine!' 'Dibs!' and worst of all 'I thought girls were prettier'.

Finally Alby yelled, 'EVERYONE SHUT THE KLUNK UP!'

Silence fell (surprise surprise). Alby analysed the crowd of boys, giving them all a death glare before continuing.

'Now listen up ya shanks, the rumours are true and you can see for ya self that there is, in fact, a girl in the glade. But just because there's a girl here don't mean that ya all stop doing your jobs! For now you're all to leave her alone! Anyone who even speaks to her unless told to do so by me, will be thrown in the slammer.'

Alby gave them all one last deadly before stating, 'At exactly five o'clock today there will be a gathering to discuss this further. NOW GO!'

All the gladers quickly dispersed, returning to their previous duties. I looked at my surroundings feeling dazed and light headed about what just happened. This was most defiantly more chaotic and less calm then the girl's glade. There all the leader had to do was raise her hand and everyone was attentive, no screaming at all.

Alby angrily muttered to himself and then stalked off to some other boys who had stayed back waiting when the main group left. I stayed standing where I was. I could sense Leo slowly approaching me and soon he stood next to me. I couldn't bring myself to turn and look at him though. I guess I didn't know what to say, what to do. Alby returned to me with another boy in toe. This boy stood taller than Alby, and was rather muscular with a square set jaw, shoulder length blonde hair and deep brown eyes.

'This is Newt,' "Alby introduced 'He's gonna give ya a tour of this place until five o'clock. Leo you'll be there too with an explanation on what the shuck happened out in that maze.'

He stalked away before any of us could say anything.

Newt held out his hand 'Nice to meet ya greenie.' (What was a greenie)

A stared at his out held hand suspiciously and after a while cautiously took it.

'I'm Madline,' I said quietly.

He led me away and I finally cast a glance back at Leo. He looked me as if I was a thousand scattered puzzle pieces that needed to be put together in order to make an image that made sense.


End file.
